It’s been clear for a while that the American workforce is not all right. Workers have struggled since the pandemic with increased job, financial, and health stressors that have been compounded by cultural and sociopolitical tensions. Americans at large are facing a mental health crisis, and employees are desperate to talk about it in the workplace.
Unfortunately for them, bosses aren’t properly equipped to have those conversations.
Roughly 74% of American employees feel it should be appropriate to talk about mental health concerns at work, according to a new report from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), an advocacy organization. And 75% of employees feel it’s the responsibility of supervisors, HR, and senior leadership to create a culture where they’re able to discuss mental health issues.
“This poll shows that, without a doubt, today’s workforce wants their employers to care about their mental health—by talking about it, giving training on it, and providing support for it,” NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr. wrote in a statement.
Bosses, however, are woefully unprepared for the kind of conversations that employees want to have. Seven in 10 leaders at the manager level and above haven’t received training when it comes to how to facilitate mental health discussions and support employees, according to NAMI. What’s more, only about half say their company even provides wellbeing and mental health training and resources. Often the responsibility of that support falls to middle managers who, in addition to being ill-equipped, are often struggling with work stress and burnout themselves.
As a result, just 58% of employees say they would feel comfortable bringing up mental health issues at work, according to the report. The rank and file say that despite corporate America ostensibly waking up to the importance of mental health support in the workplace, they feel there’s still a stigma or judgment tied to talking about mental health at work. Workers like no one else is talking about it, and they worry about appearing weak to their bosses and coworkers, according to NAMI.
“Mental health has historically been a taboo topic even outside of the workplace,” Darcy Gruttadaro, NAMI’s chief innovation officer, told Fortune. She added that she was surprised by the number of employees eager to talk about mental health at work. “It’s all about how it’s communicated. We can do our jobs and be productive and at the same time care and talk about employee mental health.”
Mental health is not only critical for workers on a personal level, it takes a toll on companies’ bottom line as well. According to NAMI’s report, more than half of employees say they’ve felt burned out in the past year. A recent report from U.K. health and life insurer, Vitality, found that the average worker feels mentally absent at work and incapable of working the equivalent of nearly 50 days out of the year, costing the British economy roughly £138 billion, or $176 billion annually. And the American Psychiatric Association has calculated the cost of U.S. workers’ mental health struggles at $210.5 billion per year for the economy.
So what are leaders and organizations to do? Even a little bit of training can go a long way, according to the American Psychological Association. Just three hours of mental health awareness training improves attitudes around mental health discussions at work, research shows. And educating managers and leaders can help create a culture more attuned to work-life balance while promoting a space where mental health is destigmatized.
Companies can also invest in listening to employees, whether it be through surveys or town halls, and using the feedback to get better at how they communicate the importance of mental health and the support and resources they offer. Finally, providing flexibility for how and where people work can help improve mental health, according to the APA.
“We’re still building people’s comfortability with talking about mental health at work,” Gruttadaro says. “Now it’s about how do we operationalize that; how do we do good by our employees while also meeting the business requirements.”
